Ku Lo ran along the stream. As there was still not a single one of the dozen wolves in sight, the chances of finding them shrunk into nonexistence.

But the cave he had entered through had to be nearby. The bear was too large to enter and there were fighters of the sword sect inside.

No! You have Gingge to find! No backing out now.

Preparing a Yin Paw in his hand, he spun around and slid to a halt. 

A massive body towered before him, shaking the ground as it stormed its target.

The hand-sized pink needle seemed tiny in comparison, but closed in on the bear’s head unerringly.

Faced with the new attack, the beast showed the same response as before and covered itself in a rock shell. When Ku Lo’s Yin Paw hit, it managed to break off a few pebbles at most.

But after the attack, a hail of gravel erupted as the bear cast away its defenses to resume the chase. 

This was what Ku Lo had waited for. The  moment something moved within the dust, he lunged forward and cleaved his sword down at the charging bear’s head.

Only for it to bounce off with a shrill clang, deflected by a largely remaining stone cover.

He rushed past its body before it could capitalize on this trap, taking distance as it turned.

They resumed their destructive chase and when the bear had caught up, Ku Lo used another Yin Paw. But instead of attacking, he instantly continued running.

Which the bear responded to by shedding its entire shield immediately.

Further attempts led him to a saddening conclusion. Whatever tried, his enemy would somehow anticipate without being able to see him, keeping its armor when he charged and shedding it when he fled.

They had moved away from any part of the valley he knew, so even if he wanted, he couldn't forfeit any longer.

“Get up! It can’t sense you if you don’t touch the ground!” A voice sounded through the crashing behind him.

Ku Lo looked around, but couldn’t spot anyone. The advice was better than nothing, so he scrambled up a nearby pine tree as fast as he could. 

The bear charged unerringly, threatening to run over the stem he was on. Yet as soon as the first tree was destroyed, with him escaping to a second one, it lost track of him.

The beast’s head turned upwards, moving around.

Just as Ku Lo was about to jump, his helper spoke again. “It’s blind. This is just a reflex left from when it wasn’t a rock grizzly yet.”

As this ‘wandering boulder’ seemed ready to give up and return, he made out movement in the pine next to him. “HAA!” a silhouette flew towards the ground and as a giant sword crashed at its rocky back, he could finally make out who it was.

The blonde that had stood out to him at the initial assembly. Her weapon was made out of actual metal, clanging as she brought down cleave after cleave on the grizzly’s body at a slow, but unrelenting pace.

When she was forced back, trails of blood could be seen on its skin. It dripped down into the trampled snow, forming sprinkled trails as it marched towards her.

Within range, it swept a paw and followed up with a bite of unnaturally crooked, rocky teeth.

She avoided the strike and punished the bear with a horizontal strike aimed at the supporting leg.

And slowly, the monster seemed to grow weaker. The blood had increased while it became slower and less aggressive. 

If my attacks got through like yours, I would have done that… Seeing that someone who obviously was a lot more knowledgeable about this beast than he was resorted to fighting it head on led him to the conclusion that fighting it was simply above his current league. 

He had wasted precious time on trying to get it to fight the wolves, but now both threats had been removed and watching this fight wouldn’t help him catch up, so he turned around and made his way into the, for him at least, unexplored regions of the valley to hunt.

Before he had gotten very far, though, a deafening roar filled the air followed by a quake outmaching any that the bear had caused before shaking the surroundings and causing Ku Lo to lose his footing. 

The fall was cushioned by the branches beneath him, but brushing through the needle leaves sticky with resin wasn’t comfortable either.

The ground around the two fighters looked as though it had been roughly tilted, with snow, dirt and rocks mixing into a brown mud that had been pressed between  shattered stone chunks.

Towering over its opponent, the rock grizzly had returned to its bear form, but emitted a grey mist that caused Ku Lo’s chest to feel heavy.

Only circulating his Qi at full strength could manage to ward off the entombing feeling.

The woman slowly got up from the rubble, too. Her leather armor was scratched in some spots, but she seemed generally unharmed. If not for the fact that she was extremely shaky on her feet.

Whatever this attack was, she bore the full effect. 

Her sword was barely dragged behind as she took more distance. It was snapped in half, which was most likely what allowed her to move it in her condition in the first place.

But the destroyed weapon triggered a thought within him. The phantasm of an idea, birthed when he had first seen the bear cast away its shielding rocks to become lighter, now stepped into the light of his consciousness.

He had always tried to keep up the massive Sword of the Swordless in its entirety. And utterly failed due to his lacking cultivation.

Just a part might be bearable, though! Struck by this inspiration, he gathered Qi in his hand as fast as he could, urging it into the familiar form of a plate longer than he was.

As soon as it formed, the shape began dissipating. He focused on the bottom half of the sword, keeping it together while the remainder evaporated further.

A feat that turned out to be harder than expected, as the Qi, guided by his observations of Qingling’s complete technique, inherently strived for equal distribution.

But he managed. Opening his eyes, he found the halved black blade resting in his hand, able to be moved.

During his distraction, the two had resumed their fight, but the tides had turned. Instead of ruthlessly striking at any opening, the woman was backing off, allowing herself to be pushed around.

The distance to his target was short, covered in an instant.

He was about to strike when he realized his mistake. He touched the ground. The rock grizzly could sense him.

The overhead swing struck a stone formed on the beast. His blade buried itself deep into the armor before shattering, but the cut healed long before he could hope to create another sword. 

In the next moment, the oppressive aura hit him like a hammer. His body weighed like lead, forcing him to stumble back though the uneven terrain.

About to lunge at him, the bear retreated and covered itself in heavy layers of rock when it saw the reforming Qi structure. 

The instant it did, the mist around it dissipated and Ku Lo felt his body return to normal. 

So it can’t maintain both? After having to endure how effortlessly this Qi beast could switch between offense and defense, this restriction was more than welcome.

Ku Lo rushed back up into the trees and noticed the swordfighter to do the same. 

But rather than giving the opportunity to strike it from above that he had hoped for, the rock grizzly kept its stone growths and stayed clear of trees as much as it could within a moderately dense forest.

He got on the ground and began running away. The beast didn’t follow him.

Meaning that he could leave now, but with all the time wasted on dealing with it, he wanted to get its core.

Looking up towards her, who hadn’t moved far from the bear, he called out. “Can you bait it?” he just realized afterwards how strange this request sounded.

But she jumped down from the branch and ran off; the rock grizzly, sensing him far away, daring enough to chase after her.

Catching up to them by jumping between the shaky treetops was more than he could manage, but his newfound ally seemed to notice this issue and led the bear back into his direction.

When she passed under him, the Qi sword in his hand was completed and the next moment, he jumped down onto the shaking mass of grey fur.

The impact strained his joints as he felt the blade in his hands shatter.

A giant mass sent him flying, but a crashing thump rang in his ears.

He stared into the clear blue sky, trying to figure out how his body fared, a tall silhouette entered his vision and reached out to him.

He took the gloved hand.

“Greetings stranger, my name is Za Huan.”

“Ku Lo.”